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Tuesday, September 09, 2014

2307 Lawn Caring

Last summer I was about the only
person in my neighborhood to follow the admonitions of the various county and
city jurisdictions to not water my lawn.

The theory is, your lawn will stay
healthy even if you don't water it all summer. Sure it will get brown, but come
the first rain it will bounce back. So why waste all that money on precious
water that could better be used for, oh, drinking?

Most plants use a lot of water.
Especially the plants or plant products we eat. So it makes sense to conserve
water for them and not blades of useless grass. Of course the whole concept of
an ornamental lawn becomes questionable when it's a dry brown eyesore, but what
the hay?

Speaking of plants consuming water,
I read an interesting factoid the other day. California now grows 80% or the
world's almonds. It's a crop that uses enough water to supply 75% of the
state's thirsty population. Definitely a drought conundrum. Especially with the
crazy folks in California. Which nuts do you satisfy?

Back to my neighborhood. My
neighbors caught on. Just about every yard is brown this year. Everyone has
turned off their sprinklers to save water and money. Outdoor decor-wise, it
almost works. The straw color of the lawns complements the tan tones of the
houses.

So when I drove by a municipal
median strip the other morning and saw sprinklers saturating its perfect lush
emerald green grass it made me wonder. Aren't these the government folks who
instructed me to conserve?

And even if they're sprinkling with
purple pipe recycled water, which in this case I doubted, wouldn't it still be
good idea to set a brown lawn civic standard?